When Paul Barber referenced growing fan impatience across large parts of the football landscape in his programme notes before Sunday's game against their arch rivals Crystal Palace, the Brighton chief executive must have feared what was to come. The clamour for change on the south coast that began as a murmur last spring after Fabian Hurzeler's side had collected one point from four Premier League matches and been knocked out of the FA Cup in the sixth round has been steadily building ever since.
I know the source of these chants and campaigns. They come from people who don't like Real Madrid. "It's a pleasure to have a president who is the most important figure in the history of this club, alongside Santiago Bernabeu. He has achieved everything, and I know the source of these chants. "I've always respected the Bernabeu, I've been booed a lot too. It wasn't a good we
We didn't see this coming, and not only because of the fog of pyro lingering over the RheinEnergieSTADION field that furnished us with 11 minutes of first-half stoppage time.
Less than two years after being sacked by Hull City, Liam Rosenior has been named Chelsea head coach. Since leaving Hull, Rosenior has built a reputation as one of Europe's brightest young managers during an 18-month spell at Chelsea's sister club Strasbourg. Described as an "innovator" and someone going "straight to the top", the 41-year-old has impressed the Chelsea hierarchy working in the same structure that led to friction between them and his predecessor Enzo Maresca.
They were the football team so good, so much fun, that Luis Enrique declared himself a fan, tuning in to watch them every week. But that was then and this is now, and now even their actual fans aren't sure they want to watch any more. There were 11,048 people at Montilivi this Saturday, out of the city centre and to the south beyond the Free City of Braavos and Kings Landing. There were at the start anyway; by the time Girona FC, the last and briefest of the great disruptors, conceded the fourth goal of another miserable afternoon most of them had already gone. The few who stayed chanted for the board to resign, just about audible over the catchiest club anthem in La Liga being belted out of huge speakers hung from scaffolding stands. It was the fifth time in a row Girona's supporters had seen their team lose here going back to May, a summer break, a new start, offering no break at all; instead, they were bottom of the table and had been battered again.
